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Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her (2000)
Released By: MGM Pictures, Inc.   Rating: PG-13   In Theaters: N/A
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Studio: MGM Pictures, Inc.
Genre: Comedy
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Rodrigo Garcia
Language: English
Official Website: N/A
Theatrical Release: N/A
Home Video Release: N/A
Cast: Glenn Close, Holly Hunter, Valeria Golino, Cameron Diaz, Calista Flockhart
Published ID: 675346
UPC: 027616859198,
Plot: Although Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her does bear some similarities to Short Cuts and Magnolia in its setting (Southern California) and mood (modern malaise), and its multiple story format, its focus is exclusively on female characters, and it's possible to view each story on its own. The film begins with a prologue: Police detectives are investigating the apparent suicide of a Hispanic woman (Elpidia Carillo). This Is Dr. Keener deals with Dr. Elaine Keener (Glenn Close), a single professional woman attempting to care for her aging and infirm mother and deal with her own loneliness. She invites Christine (Calista Flockhart), a tarot card reader, into her home to make some sense of her life. Fantasies About Rebecca profiles a successful bank manager (Holly Hunter) involved with a married man (Gregory Hines). When she learns that she is pregnant, he coldly advises her to take care of the problem. Before she visits Dr. Keener to have an abortion, she impulsively has a fling with a colleague (Matt Craven). She is also confronted by a female street person in the bank's parking lot. Someone for Rose is about a single mother (Kathy Baker), a writer of children's books. She is attracted to a new neighbor, a dwarf (Danny Woodburn), and he catches her spying on him in his house. She's also amazed to find that her son is more sexually active than she knew -- and more than she is herself. Good Night Lilly, Good Night Christine details the relationship between the tarot card reader Christine and her lover, Lilly (Valeria Golino), who is critically ill with an unnamed disease. The final story, Love Waits for Kathy, concerns two sisters, Carol (Cameron Diaz), a lovely blind woman with an active social life, and her police detective sibling, Kathy (Amy Brenneman), one of the detectives who appeared in the prologue. Kathy is attracted to the medical examiner in the suicide case, and her story ends with him taking her out on a date. In an epilogue, Dr. Keener drops in to a bar, where she meets a male character from one of the earlier stories. Debuting director Rodrigo Garcia, a noted cinematographer, is the son of writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Things You Can Tell made its debut on cable television, although it was originally intended to be a theatrical release. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
IDDateTimeTitleReviewHelpfulVotesTotalVotes
great flick
Added 4/12/2009

I rented this not knowing I had seen the last half one late night probably on IFC. Wow now I get all the connections. Really good flick
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
Beautiful!
Added 2/2/2009

Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her is a series of vignettes that are all somehow connected. Basically the equivalent of a really good short story collection! Each story is about 20 or so minutes long and plays out almost to a conclusion but then skips to the next story where a new character or two are focused on but characters from the previous stories also appear. I love how this fits together so neatly and creates a whole world. So after all the characters have been introduced and their stories have begun it all comes full circle at the end and most (but not all) come to a conclusion of sorts.

Of the 5 vignettes, I had two favorites, Someone For Rose and Love Waits For Kathy. Someone For Rose is so sweet, I think I squealed when I was watching it. It's the story of shy Kathy, the mother of a teenage son. One day a man moves in across the street and she finds herself really drawn to him but doesn't really know how to act around him. I don't want to say anymore than that. In Love Waits For Kathy, Kathy is the older sister of Carol, who is blind. They live together and you can sort of tell that Kathy has put her sister's happiness in front of her own. While Carol goes out on dates Kathy, who is a detective, works on the case of a suicide of someone she once knew.

So I got this one because I saw something about it somewhere, no idea what and I love star studded power casts. It blew me away! I guess I shouldn't be surprised because of who is in this movie but I still was. This came out in 2000 so maybe it was before I paid a ton of attention to movies because I had never heard of it until recently! I'm so glad I found it!

0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
Choppy
Added 9/28/2008

I loved the cast, some of the acting was rough. The story line was choppy and didn't flow well or back to itself. If you like a collection of short stories without a beginning, middle or end; you'll enjoy this.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
I wonder what time dwarves go to bed?
Added 5/21/2008

Way better than I expected

When my wife brought this home, I looked it over and thought I was in for a long night. The emotional troubles of women, the shallow men who flirt and dump, the oppresive this, the glass-ceiling that. Well, did I get a surprise. My male, againg, Christian soul received a bit of a shake.

This film is indeed about women who've made some bad choices. And are in the process of realizing it. Some do better after this realization, some, apparently, do not. Much like real life. Those wake up calls often get the snooze for many years. We allow ourselves to be fooled because we need the affection, the praise, the prestige, or the glory. And find ourselves feeling used, ignored, or humiliated. But far too often the way we cleanse that soiled feeling is to do the same over again. Ask the domestic violence counselor who's seen the same woman in multiple abusive relationships. She knows better. He knows she knows better. Yet the alarm is turned off repeatedly.

There are many small jewels in this film. To reveal too much would spoil a carefully crafted tale. But this is a film intelligently at odds with the lifestyle portrayed in most cinema, where "I am the most important person" and "I need to follow my heart" and "I need to be funny and cool and hip and ironic and cynical." These are normal people who have lived mostly normal lives and found themselves somewhere other than where they'd like to be.

0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
Things I'd Never Have Seen Except Through Luck
Added 1/28/2007

The reviews available here do a great job whetting the appetite of those who haven't seen this remarkable film, so I'll keep my comments short. In this movie, and in his Nine Lives, Rodrigo Garcia gives us more dramatic substance,insight, and pleasure in any single 10- or 20-minute segment than we can find, nine times out of ten, in the standard industry
"blockbuster" of whatever length. I found these by pure luck, and am astonished by my good fortune.

2 out of 3 people found this helpful.
great flick
Added 4/12/2009

I rented this not knowing I had seen the last half one late night probably on IFC. Wow now I get all the connections. Really good flick
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
Beautiful!
Added 2/2/2009

Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her is a series of vignettes that are all somehow connected. Basically the equivalent of a really good short story collection! Each story is about 20 or so minutes long and plays out almost to a conclusion but then skips to the next story where a new character or two are focused on but characters from the previous stories also appear. I love how this fits together so neatly and creates a whole world. So after all the characters have been introduced and their stories have begun it all comes full circle at the end and most (but not all) come to a conclusion of sorts.

Of the 5 vignettes, I had two favorites, Someone For Rose and Love Waits For Kathy. Someone For Rose is so sweet, I think I squealed when I was watching it. It's the story of shy Kathy, the mother of a teenage son. One day a man moves in across the street and she finds herself really drawn to him but doesn't really know how to act around him. I don't want to say anymore than that. In Love Waits For Kathy, Kathy is the older sister of Carol, who is blind. They live together and you can sort of tell that Kathy has put her sister's happiness in front of her own. While Carol goes out on dates Kathy, who is a detective, works on the case of a suicide of someone she once knew.

So I got this one because I saw something about it somewhere, no idea what and I love star studded power casts. It blew me away! I guess I shouldn't be surprised because of who is in this movie but I still was. This came out in 2000 so maybe it was before I paid a ton of attention to movies because I had never heard of it until recently! I'm so glad I found it!

0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
Choppy
Added 9/28/2008

I loved the cast, some of the acting was rough. The story line was choppy and didn't flow well or back to itself. If you like a collection of short stories without a beginning, middle or end; you'll enjoy this.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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